Green Ink: Clean Coal, Clean Stoves, and Obama’s Work in Progress

Crude oil futures rebounded above $50 a barrel amid signs the economy has hit bottom in parts of the U.S. and maybe even China, Bloomberg reports.

China is stepping in with hard currency to secure energy supplies, especially in Latin America, reports the NYT. Copying China’s government-to-government model might not work for the U.S., notes Geoff Styles, but they are on to something: “It seems clear that China regards oil as a key strategic resource–a pillar industry–and that ensuring access to it remains essential for economic and national security, even in a world increasingly focused on renewable energy.”

The U.K. unveiled a 250 million pound plan to boost the electric-car market, including generous subsidies for buyers—but that won’t apply to currently popular hybrids such as the Prius, in the FT and the WSJ.

President Obama’s climate policy—centered on cap-and-trade—is very much a work in progress, but just setting emissions-reductions targets doesn’t mean too much, argues Roger Pielke, Jr.: “A carbon policy that focuses directly on the factors that lead to emissions reductions – and not the outcome, with hopes that some complex policy design can somehow make the impossible possible – offers the greatest hope for real emissions reductions over the coming decades.”

Pete DuPont’s criticism of climate legislation is more pointed, in the WSJ: “Waxman-Markey will take us in one direction, but to keep America prospering we need to go in the opposite one.”